The Quaker No Papist, Postscript
A Poſtſcript.
YOu (Mr. Tho. Smith) are very earneſt to faſten the ſuſpicion of Popery upon your Adverſaries, eſpecially George Whitehead: but 'tis a wonder to me, that (being Rhetorick Profeſſour) you remember no better that honeſt advice of the Oratour, given you in your Grammar, Qui alterum incuſat probri, &c. He that accuſes his neighbour of any crime, ought to examine himſelf well, and take heed, that he be not found guilty of it himſelf. I will not ſay you are a Papiſt; it ſhould be too much contrary to Charity, conſidering what you profeſs. But this I do ſay, that you give more cauſe of ſuſpicion that way, then any thing you have yet objected againſt George Whitehead. I ſhall give two Inſtances of this, and leave you then to your private Meditations.
Firſt, At the end of your Letter to Mr. E. of Taft, you talk of a pure Spouſe of Chriſt, the Church in all ages. Now, Sir, is not this in effect to juſtifie the Church of Rome to be a pure Church? What other Church, I pray you, was there in all ages, but the Roman Church, and thoſe which agreed, and agree with her in all, or at leaſt in the moſt and groſſeſt of thoſe corruptions and errours, for which Proteſtants (when time was) ſeparated themſelves from the Roman Church, and for which they do ſtill at this day abandon her Communion.
Secondly, you ſay, That meerly upon the Authority of this Church, we receive the Canon of Scriptures. And what is this (good Sir) but to ſay, that either the Authority of the Church is Divine and Infallible, (which none but Papiſts will ſay) or that we have no Divine and Infallible Aſſurance, which Books of Scripture are Canonical, and which are not? For as concerning the Inward Aſſurance of the Spirit, 'tis too notorious how much you reject it, with the Papiſts. Ex ungue Leonem. From theſe two Capital Aſſertions of Popery let any indifferent man judge, whether Mr. T. S. (netwithſtanding his vehement pretendings to the contrary) may not be juſtly thought to favour the Doctrine of the preſent Church of Rome, a little more then a man of his Profeſſion ſhould do.
But I have done. The Grace of God, a due knowledge of your ſelf, with a ſpirit of true Charity towards your Brethren, (which are all, that profeſs the Bleſſed Goſpel of Jeſus Chriſt in ſincerity) be ever with you. Amen.
FINIS.
End of the text · Henry Denne, The Quaker No Papist (1659)